#construct a ref to an anonymous hash:
my $ref = {andy => 'likes cake'}; #note *curly* brackets
#another way
my %hash = (andy => 'likes beer too'); $ref = \%hash; #normal brackets of course

#get at one specific value
print $ref->{andy};
#another way
print $$ref{andy};

#get all the keys
print keys %$ref;
#get all the values
print values %$ref;
#get key/value pairs
while (my ($key, $val) = each %$ref) {print "$key = $val"}

#copy the hash into a new hash
my %newhash = %$ref

#if you use the -> syntax with references to references, then you can omit the ->s, after the first one, like this:
my $ref = { andy => {eats => 'cake'}};
print $ref->{andy}{eats}; #note only one -> necessary